Mini desktop systems take aim at businesses and education

Acer today announced its new Veriton N4630G series of commercial mini desktops for businesses and educational institutions in the U.S. There are two models in the new series -- Veriton N4630G-i54570X and Veriton N4530G-i34150X -- both of which offer security features in a space saving, one-liter chassis. They're also fairly affordable, with the former selling for $649 and the latter going for $549.

Latest systems from Lenovo are all business

After five straight quarters of being on top, Lenovo shows no signs of relinquishing its position as the world's largest supplier of PCs (in terms of sales and volume). The number one PC maker is also determined to outpace the industry average in desktop PC growth, hence Lenovo just announced three new additions to its ThinkCentre desktop PC line designed for business users as companies look to leave Windows XP in the dust.

Could a 14-inch Windows notebook be a Chromebook killer?

Microsoft isn't blind to the fact that Chromebooks are flying off of store shelves, both virtual and physical, and so a month ago the Redmond outfit let slip that it was working with various partners to offer low cost alternatives in the $199 to $249 range. Turns out it wasn't just lip service. Meet the HP Stream 14, a 14-inch notebook running Windows 8.1 and carrying a $200 price tag.

Gaming laptop brings the bling

Gold seems to be the 'in' thing among mobile devices these days, so why not extend the color option over to laptops? That must have been what MSI was thinking when it conceived limited edition versions of its GS60 Ghost Pro 3K and GS60 Ghost gaming notebooks. Each one packs high end hardware inside a "luxurious golden chassis" measuring 15.35 inches by 10.47 inches by 0.78 inches and weighing 4.36 pounds.

Go ahead, take a peek inside

If you're the type that likes to flash your parts at family and friends (we're talking about computer parts, of course), you're going to appreciate Digital Storm's new Velox, a mid-sized system designed to "shatter benchmarks" and showcase the components inside with a side panel window. The Velox slides in neatly between Digital Storm's small form factor Bolt II and big size Aventum II systems.

A tiny system with the gaming performance of a Titan Z

Of all the systems featuring an Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics card, the Tiki-Z Special Edition from Falcon Northwest might be the most impressive. That's because the Tiki-Z Special Edition is a micro-tower measuring just 4 inches wide and 13 inches tall --the same size as the standard Tiki and roughly equivalent to the original Xbox console -- yet has enough space to accommodate Nvidia's Titan Z, which is powered by a pair of Kepler GPUs.

Undercutting the competition

Nvidia has partnered with various system builders to equip their current rigs with at least one GeForce Titan Z graphics card and rebrand them as Battleboxes, Maingear being one of them. Unlike ones we've already seen, however, Maingear's Battlebox Titan Z PCs are a little more cost friendly, with the least expensive model (Vybe) starting at $2,999. Battlebox configurations are also available on Maingear's F131 and Shift starting at $3,199 and $3,499, respectively.

Configurations start at $549

In an alternate reality, Dell is launching its Alienware Alpha PC game console as its official Steam Machine. In this world, however, Valve threw a wrench into every OEM's plans by delaying the launch of its Steam Machine platform until next year, as it wanted more time to tweak its Steam Controller. Fair enough, though not all system builders are willing to put their PC console plans on hold. Enter Alienware, which today announced it's taking pre-orders for its Alpha console.

Rebuilt from the ground up

Lenovo is using its time at SIGGRAPH 2014 in Vancouver, British Columbia to launch its new ThinkStation P Series of desktop workstations. The new Lenovo P900, P700, and P500 workstations join the entry-level ThinkStation P300 announced in May of this year and have been completely retooled compared to Lenovo's previous generation of workstations. According to Victor Rios, Vice President and General Manager of Lenovo's Workstation division, these are the "best designed" workstations the company has ever built.